大象传媒

For Easter Day, Private Passions celebrates Spring and the music of birdsong with one of the world鈥檚 leading experts on birds, Professor Tim Birkhead.

An award-winning scientist, author and university lecturer, Tim Birkhead is Emeritus Professor of Zoology at the University of Sheffield, and the author of many books that communicate his life-long passion, including 鈥淲hat it鈥檚 like to be a bird鈥� and most recently 鈥淏irds and Us鈥�, a 12,000-year history of our relationship with birds, from cave art to conservation.

His choices include music that Mozart taught to a starling, and the old Catalan 鈥淪ong of the Birds鈥�, played by Pablo Casals. There will also be the music of birdsong itself, from the Dawn Chorus to the song of the bullfinch, which Tim Birkhead regards as the ultimate songbird. The programme includes the famous recording of Beatrice Harrison playing her cello to a nightingale with the nightingale answering back. Tim Birkhead explores the story of the recording and considers the enduring impact of Beatrice鈥檚 duet.

A correction: Since we broadcast this programme, new evidence has been brought to light. We鈥檝e now learned that the recording initially believed to be the original 1924 broadcast of Beatrice Harrison and the nightingale, as labelled by the 大象传媒 Archives and the National Sound Archive, is instead likely to be a commercial recording released in 1927 by HMV. The labelling has now been corrected to ensure this mix up won鈥檛 happen again. Suggestions that the song of the nightingale in 1924 may have been sung by a siffleur are not new but probably impossible to verify since it seems likely that the original 1924 broadcast was never recorded, as the recording technology did not exist at the time. Claims about the real bird being replaced in 1924 by a professional bird imitator, Madame Saberon, are based on written testimony to the 大象传媒 from relatives of Madame Saberon, as well as accounts from Madame Saberon herself. There continues to be competing accounts of this extraordinary musical event as well as huge public interest; this demonstrates just how important the story of Beatrice and the nightingale is in the history of broadcasting.

Produced by Elizabeth Burke
A Loftus Media production for 大象传媒 Radio 3